Turning Stone

First off, I have to say, I had a fantastic time. The guys I went with: Marco, Jon, Ryan and Michael were awesome to travel with. Usually when you spend that much time with 5 people for 48 hours there are some tense moments but once you get through the border surprises there are no tense moments.

We had a great time win or lose. There was a tonne of laughs and jokes and of course we talked a tonne about poker. That's the thing, poker players are so used to everyone around them sick of them talking about poker that when you are with other poker players its great to chat poker. The interesting thing is, Jonnie was saying on the way down that the last time he was at turning stone he lost with a Straight Flush to a Royal for his sickest beat ever. A little bit of foreshadowing.

When we first got there we were anxious to play but wanted to hit the satelite for the tourney the next day. There just was not enough time to play a cash game and the satelite so we went to eat and then hit the satelite. I did very well in the satelite finishing 26th out of 114. I ran into KK holding AK for half my stack when blinds were really big.

Off to the cash games where I was lucky enough to sit a table that just got started. I made 2 huge monster suckouts and still left that table down $300. I went to a different table and won about $100 back so on the day I am down about $250 and then we goto bed, get around 4 hours sleep and head to the big tourney. Jon and I ate breakfast together and discussed being at the final table together. There was no doubt in my mind that one or both of us would cash in this tourney.

I was very happy with my play in the tourney. I made a critical call with AQ and lost a race with 77. I tried to play shortstack ninja and it did not work out well for me. I went and wished Jon luck and left for the cash game. About an hour or so into the cash game, I had set my table image up really well and I was up about $90. Then we all left to go check on Jon and we realized it was a critical stage of the tourney with around 34 left. Jon had an ok stack but was really upset that he called an all-in with JJ and the other guy had K7 but he lost. I gave him crap and told him to forget about it and it was only one hand that he would forget about when he won the tourney.

We all decided that this was too important and we needed to be there and we took our chips off the table and went back to Jon. By this time there was about 28 left and there were 3 tables roped off. We stood by the sidelines and I realized that I have a huge read on Jon. I was actually guessing his hole cards and getting it right almost everytime. He then doubled up when a donkey big stack pushed all-in on him and he had AA. The donkey had K8o and re-raised Jon all-in.

Once Jon got a stack he appeared unstopable. I was very excited for him and watched every hand trying to get reads on every player he was up against so I could share them. One thing I regret is not spending more time studying the other table. Of the last 6 players in the tourney there was only 1 from Jon's table. Jon played awesome to get into the last 5. On that break I told Jon it was his money and he could do what he wanted but if it was me, I start pushing almost every hand. Blinds were HUGE, preflop play was most important. Jonny did a great job to get a chop and move up to 4th place. The cash he won was awesome.

After the tourney, the cash games were the same. I really made no mistakes including when I ran into the Str8 flush. I then lost my concentration and should have stopped playing. I lost another $200. Jon made me leave the poker room around 330am and we went to play some table games.

Let it Ride was mean to me but I did awesome at blackjack turning $20 into $280. At 430 we decided to shut it down and goto sleep.

After 3 hours sleep I told the guys that I coiuld drive but if they all fell asleep we are dead because I won't stay up. We decided to prop bet and we bet on everything. Turns in the road, letters on the road sign, odd/even on license platers, and male/female drivers. I ended up around $7 but boy did we laugh.

It was a fantastic trip and I hope to do it again and make money this time!

Mark Silver